With a good nights sleep under our belt, we were ready for a really full day of touring around London. I was surprised how well we had made the time change transition, I think I was prepared for the worst-a least a couple really weary days, but after a nice comfy hotel room, we all felt rested and ready to see some more of this city. We stayed at the Marriott Kensington hotel, and we were lucky that they served a full hot breakfast with our room. Finding places to eat kind of stressed me out, I don’t know why, I should have embraced a chance for a little different flavor, but on this particular morning when I was still not feeling so hot, I was glad to have a breakfast just a few steps away. Brianna and Austin were finding out fast that English style anything wasn’t quite the same as what they were used to in America-the pancakes were a little different than they were expecting, and the cereal tasted a bit different even though it was named the same-chalk it up to the beginning of the whole European experience. By the end of our whole trip they discovered that that “European Experience” sure had some great food. I opted for some muffins at breakfast, and we all agreed they were the BEST blueberry muffins that we had ever tasted. I don’t know what was so special about them, but they were SO good. We kept going back for more, and then would wait for the hostess to refill the basket so we could snag a few for a snack later in the day, they were that good. I am pretty sure they weren’t really that “ English”, but they sure were tasty!
Our hotel was four blocks away from the tube, which we ended up taking almost everywhere we went, or walked, and we got to pass by these buildings a couple times a day as we walked down “our” street. It was such a pretty walk, and I never tired of seeing the cars drive on the left side of the road. After a while Austin thought it was funny to try to find “normal” American cars and take pictures of them. It made me a little glad that we were walking or taking the tube everywhere though, I think I would have been backwards the whole weekend had we tried to drive around.
Grateful to have the Look Left reminders on the road-a few times we had some close calls as we crossed the streets.
We had chosen to take a hop-on hop-off bus tour on one of London’s famous double decker red buses. We were one of the first ones on the bus that morning and were lucky enough to land a spot right in front on the upper level. We have a prefect view of the whole city and were glad to be in a semi warm area for a couple of hours since the highs that day were only in the 30’s. COLD! There was a recorded commentary we listened to with headphones as we passed by some of London’s best sites. It was a great way to see London in it’s entirety, and see some of the things we wanted to go back to and see up close.
The famous Notting Hill neighborhood. With it’s all white buildings, wrought iron railings, and manicured planted outside, it was one of my favorite neighborhoods.
This sweet elderly lady by the arch feeding the birds reminded me of the movie Mary Poppins. It was one of my favorite movies when I was little, and I still love the song “Feed The Birds,…tuppence for birds…” I think had that lady been humming it, I would have gladly bought some seed to feed them just for the sweet memory.
The National Gallery Museum. One of the places we missed getting to visit inside because of all the wacky hours for Good Friday, but still a pretty cool building to see even from the outside. I love all the old architecture and history these buildings have.
The Horse Guards standing duty outside the east end of St. James Park across from Buckingham Palace.
A view of St. Paul’s Cathedral from the back of the bus.
A drive over the Tower Bridge. My love for the color blue makes me love this bridge even more with it’s bright turquoise suspensions all along it. It made me happy every time we spotted it that whole day. Add a bright red bus along side it, and it was pretty much perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment